Saudi Arabia as a Humanitarian Donor: High Potential, Little Institutionalization

As part of the project Humanitarian Assistance - Truly Universal?, GPPi published in March a research paper that seeks to understand how Saudi Arabia sees its role in international humanitarian assistance and what foreign policy priorities and operational procedures characterize Saudi assistance. Titled Saudi Arabia as a Humanitarian Donor: High Potential, Little Institutionalization, the study is authored by Nathalie Fustier, a specialist on Arab policy and currently a senior consultant with the European Company for Strategic Intelligence in Paris, and by Khalid Al Yahya, assistant professor and the director of the governance and public management research program at the Dubai School of Government. In the first section of the paper, the authors review Saudi Arabia's humanitarian aid implementation and the country's conception of humanitarianism and aid modalities. In the past 10 years, a large portion of Saudi aid has gone to the Arab and Muslim world, but also to strategically important countries such as China. Recently, however, Saudi Arabia has started to engage beyond these main target countries, not least in reaction to criticism of regional bias. The next chapter identifies the key actors and institutions that make and implement aid decisions. The Saudi humanitarian aid scene is fragmented and complex, mainly because a large number of governmental, semi-governmental and private organizations and mechanisms are involved in decision-making, fundraising and implementation of aid. This makes understanding Saudi operation and decision structures very difficult. The third section describes the nature of Saudi Arabia's relationship with the multilateral humanitarian system. Contrary to what the country's large contributions to multilateral humanitarian organizations suggest, a great deal of ambiguity and mutual misunderstandings impair confidence, cooperation and coordination with the international humanitarian system. In the fourth chapter, the authors explain the motives and considerations that inform Saudi humanitarian aid decision and implementation patterns. Fustier and Al Yahya discuss Saudi Arabia's take on humanitarian principles, religious values and religious obligations, the driving force of leadership in the Arab world and beyond, as well as internal and external security considerations that influence decisions. The last section of the paper discusses measures that international multilateral organizations, Western donors and Saudi Arabia might consider to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of aid implementation and foster better cooperation. The research was funded through a research grant from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).